SEO101

What Is SEO/SEM?a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search engine results page (SERP) -- including Google, Bing, Yahoo etc.

Why It Matters For B2BSearch covers more than the first half of the buying cycle

89% of B2B researchers use the internet during the B2B research process.

90% of B2B researchers who are online use search specifically to research business purchases

71% of B2B researchers start their research with a generic search

Those involved in the B2B buying process are already 57% of the way down the path to a decision before they'll actually perform an action on your site

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/the-changing-face-b2b-marketing.html

Google Stats1.Google now processes over

40,000 search queries every second on average, which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. (65-70% of market share)

2.20% of searches have never been asked before

3.#1 source of traffic on the internet

Anatomy Of A SERPA typical search engine results page contains PPC ads and organic results

70-80% of users ignore ads, but they sure do take up a lot of nice real estate

Anatomy Of A SERPGoogle is experimenting with new layouts. There are increasingly more types of organic results including links, images, maps, local results and more

Anatomy of a SERPmore answers directly in SERP

The Google Algorithm Google is successful when it answers a user’s questions more completely in less time than anything else can (while collecting a little ad revenue along the way)

There are hundreds of ‘ranking factors’ or things google takes into consideration when figuring out if a page provides the best experience for a user. Most fit into 4 categories: Relevance, Authority, Trust, Usability.

Google uses robots but it’s goal is to find good content for human beings.

We don’t know the algorithm/it is always changing but we can make informed decisions

https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

Evolution Of SEO Old SEO: Get any links you can and use a keyword as much as possible

Websites were connected through link pages

Evolution Of SEO Current SEO: Content and links need to have high quality that users interact with

SEO used to be easier but the basics will always be the same

Content is KING

Evolution Of SEO Next SEO: DeepMind AI, voice search, more answers directly in SERP

Aligning With Google’s Goal Google wants users to find:

-pages that thoroughly answer the question so the user doesn't have to look elsewhere for more (typically longer)-pages that match the intent of the search as closely as possible-pages that are referenced (linked to) by other trustworthy sources-pages that are clearly constructed and easy to navigate

Google does not want users to find:

-pages that take a long time to load-pages that are hard to read on a user’s device-confusing pages without a central theme-pages that are redundant-pages that users leave quickly-pages with a lot of irrelevant links

-pages that are trying to trick users (pop ups, spam, virus attacks)

Our Philosophy Our goal is to provide the answer to the question someone is asking at all parts of the funnel and gain long-term, consistent traffic/contacts from search engines.

Ethical/White Hat SEO - This means providing search engines with critical information while optimizing our website for human experience. We are not trying to ‘trick’ google with tactics that could get us penalized (white text on white background/buying spammy links), but create a website with an excellent user experience and enough relevant information to help google index and bring us to the right users without friction.

White Hat tactics include: writing website copy for users and including keywords naturally, making sure the website runs fast, mobile friendliness, consistent hierarchy that helps move users through the funnel and give search engines more context about which pages are right for a given query, create content and pages to answer relevant questions that are not already covered on our site

StrategyCreating a clear and usable site structure. This means making things as easy on people (and robots) as possible by using headings, subheadings, categorization etc to make sure it is clear what relationships different parts of the website have to each other and what information on the page is most important.

Producing good content to answer the questions people are searching for by being as relevant as possible for that search result. This means thinking about titles, content, etc to optimize our pages around the keywords our users are looking for.

Earning links. Google understands how authoritative and important a website or page is based on what other content is referencing it. This is ‘off-page’ SEO and unlike the first two, we do not have complete control over it. Nevertheless it is important to make sure spammy sites aren’t linking to us and that we are using our opportunities with partners, customers, and industry leaders to gain links to our site.

Keywords Find the most relevant terms

Expand to related terms or phrases

Compare based on search volume/competition

SEO Is A Practice Not A Channel

1.SEO is a practice or methodology that affects everything we doa. Support documentation & customer content

b. Partner links

c. Recruiting opportunities

d. PR

e. Technical changes

f. Blog

g. Relationship building